Four automotive museums pay homage to storied car marques

The Porsche 917/20, a.k.a. the Pink Pig, in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Photograph by: Handout photo
, Porsche Museum

Stuttgart is probably the only city in the world that has two major auto museums, but the collections at Porsche and Mercedes-Benz really exceed the "museum" definition. These places are more akin to shrines, tributes to vehicles that have transcended their status as mere modes of transportation.

So, when it comes to Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, plus BMW, Audi and Volkswagen, it's almost as if there was no choice but to give these marques the full tribute treatment. There are only a few places in the world - Italy, England and Japan - where cars have such venerated status, and the auto museums in Germany are consistent with that level of devotion.

PORSCHE

Porsche opened its new museum in 2009, just across the intersection from the factory gates. The museum welcomes about 400,000 visitors per year, and it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Stuttgart.

The collection is arranged chronologically, starting with early cars such as the 1956 550A Spyder and proceeding through sports racers/ prototypes such as the 904 and 908, and on to an entire section devoted to the 917. The 911 is, of course, the most prominent vehicle, featured throughout the collection in various racing and street-legal guises, as part of its long, colourful career.

MERCEDES-BENZ

Chronology also determines the layout of the collection at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, which is housed in an ultra modern building within the sprawling M-B factory grounds. Visitors ride an elevator to the top of the collection, nine floors up, and work their way down through the decades to newer and newer vehicles. M-B is the only company that gets to say its very first cars are also the world's first automobiles, so, in that sense, this is the most historic of all the museums.

That history is all explained in the opening displays on the top floor, which gives centre stage to a huffing and puffing single-cylinder internal-combustion motor based on the original 1883 design. Nearby are the first "horseless carriage" applications of derivatives from that motor.

It's a long way from that to an SLK or Lewis Hamilton's McLaren Mercedes F1 race car, but the museum presents the 120-year journey in a very comprehensive and logical way.

BMW

The new BMW Welt building provides space for themes related to mobility and technology. These include interactive exhibits on BMW development and production, and the Welt is also the venue for social events, live broadcasts and product presentations. And the Welt is also used for the personal delivery of about 15,000 new cars per year to customers who come to BMW.

The BMW Museum itself is nestled next to the iconic "four-cylinder building," a cluster of four circular towers that mimic a square-four motor layout, with very tall strokes. The museum assembles examples of the entire history of BMW, including 120 exhibits from more than nine decades of manufacturing.

VOLKSWAGEN AND AUDI

Under the Vollkswagen umbrella is Audi, and these two historic Teutonic makers share corporate roots with the iconic, non-German brands Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Skoda and SEAT.

They each have their place in the Autostadt, a complex of yet more mega-modern structures, dedicated to various automotive functions. In this automotive "theme park," there is for instance a multimedia display on car design software; attractions that focus on key models such as the VW Beetle; an exhibit on the advantages/disadvantages of different types of fuels and an off-road test track.

Buyers can also pick up their new pre-ordered VW at the Autostadt, and get it delivered from one of the two tall glass silos in which some of the cars are stored. There is even a mini track where kids can drive small electric cars modelled on Beetles.

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